Education and Race from Empire to Brexit

In the media

Covering the period from the height of Empire to Brexit and beyond, this book shows how the vote to leave the European Union increased hostilities towards racial and ethnic minorities and migrants. Concentrating on the education system, it asks whether populist views that there should be a British identity - or a Scottish, Irish or Welsh one - will prevail. Alternatively arguments based on equality, human rights and economic needs may prove more powerful.

It covers events in politics and education that have left most white British people ignorant of the Empire, the often brutal de-colonisation and the arrival of immigrants from post-colonial and European countries. It discusses politics and practices in education, race, religion and migration that have left schools and universities failing to engage with a multiracial and multicultural society.

''Rich, insightful, challenging and surprising, this is an astonishing book. Sally Tomlinson takes the reader on a whirlwind tour through the history of Empire then and now laying bare the racist fantasies of oppression and control that should shame a nation and yet continue to shape the present day.'' David Gillborn, University of Birmingham

“We should have a post-imperial narrative that is inclusive of everyone’s history. Too often people discuss the British Empire in dichotomous ways: should we feel pride or shame about the Empire? We should be asking how the past affects the present and what we can learn from it. This is what Sally Tomlinson achieves in this book.” Zubaida Haque, Deputy Director of the Runnymede Trust

"This unique study of the background to Brexit tells the full story of the imperialist legacy and the educational differences that underlay it in a systematic critique that goes a long way to explaining our current dilemmas." Gary McCulloch, UCL Institute of Education

Sally Tomlinson is an Emeritus Professor at Goldsmiths London University and an Honorary Fellow in the Education Department, University of Oxford. She began her teaching career in primary school in Wolverhampton, and has spent her academic career researching, writing and teaching about race and ethnicity, and the politics of education, especially 'special' education.

She was a trustee of the African Education Trust for twenty years working in in Somalia and Somaliland and Kenya.

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